Global Research

Very rarely does President Putin ever do anything without receiving unfair treatment from the Western Mainstream Media, but his trip to “Israel” on Thursday to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz was an unforgettable exception. The Russian leader was invited by caretaker “Prime Minister” Netanyahu as the guest of honor among more than 40 other heads of state who arrived to participate in what was billed as the biggest diplomatic event in the self-professed “Jewish State’s” history. He earned this VIP treatment because it was the Soviet Union that stopped the Nazi’s genocidal machine, something that “Foreign Minister” Katz emotionally brought up in his exchange with President Putin when he personally thanked him for what the Russian Federation’s predecessor state did in saving his mother from the world’s most notorious death camp.

Before reporting on and then subsequently analyzing some of the other memorable moments from that solemn occasion, it’s important to share the highlights of President Putin’s visit from the Kremlin’s official website so that the reader can peruse it all if they’re interested:

• “Meeting with Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu“
• “Meeting with President of Israel Reuven Rivlin“
• “Ceremony to unveil the Memorial Candle monument dedicated to the residents and defenders of besieged Leningrad“
• “President presents Order of Courage to relative of Leon Feldhendler“
• “Remembering the Holocaust: Fighting Antisemitism forum“

As can be glimpsed by even just the headlines themselves, President Putin’s visit saw him participate in events that are very dear to his heart — strengthening Russian-“Israeli” relations, remembering the siege of Leningrad and the Holocaust, and fighting anti-Semitism.

Many in the Alt-Media Community have unfortunately been indoctrinated with the completely false narrative that President Putin is supposedly “against Israel” for whatever reason they imagine but which usually has something to do with their dogmatic belief that he’s secretly allied with the Iranian-led Mideast “Resistance” that’s dedicated to removing the Zionist occupation entity from Palestine. That’s not true whatsoever at all, and the author thoroughly debunked the delusions of such twisted minds in his extended piece for Global Research in September 2019 titled “Russia’s Middle East Strategy: ‘Balance’ vs. ‘Betrayal’?” where he argued that Russia is much closer to “Israel” than to Iran by a long shot, which is entirely the result of President Putin’s foreign policy decisions that are undertaken out of his belief that such a stance is best for his country’s strategic interests.

On the topic of his participation in the “Fighting Antisemitism” international forum, it deserves mentioning that the official Kremlin website quotes President Putin as having had the following exchange with present Oksana Boyko on 11 June, 2013:

“Vladimir Putin: A response to your question could take hours. It’s so complex. I will try to be as concise as possible. First, I have repeatedly voiced Russia’s official stance – Iran has the right for a peaceful nuclear program and it cannot be singled out for discrimination. Second, we need to be aware that Iran is located in a very challenging region. I have told our Iranian partners about that. That’s why Iranian threats made towards neighbouring countries, in particular Israel, threats that Israel can be destroyed, are absolutely unacceptable. This is counterproductive.

Oksana BOYKO: This is not a proper quote of the Iranian president.

Vladimir Putin: It doesn’t quite matter whether it’s a proper quote or not. It means it’s best to avoid a wording that could be improperly quoted or could be interpreted differently. That’s why the focus on Iran does have a reason behind it.”

Those powerful words and others aren’t only relevant to the larger observation that Russia is much more closely aligned with “Israel” than with Iran, but also to what President Putin himself said while speaking with “Israeli” “President” Rivlin. In response to his counterpart quipping that “we do not know where [anti-Semitism] ends”, the Russian leader said that “You have just said that it is unclear where anti-Semitism ends. Unfortunately, we know this: it ends in Auschwitz. Therefore, we need to be very attentive so as not to miss any similar developments in the future and to counter any manifestations of xenophobia and anti-Semitism, no matter where this may happen, and no matter from where this may come.” By strong innuendo, it can therefore be inferred that President Putin has zero tolerance for Iran’s repeated calls for “Israel’s” destruction.

This might even be more so the case after Netanyahu told the attendees at the forum that Iran is “the most anti-Semitic regime on the planet”, which isn’t the wording that the ever-diplomatic Russian President would publicly use but which might more or less sum up his stance towards the Islamic Republic given its anti-Zionist rhetoric, which some in “Israel” conflate with anti-Semitism and believe is simply a more “publicly plausible” cover for it in the modern day. After all, President Putin said during his keynote speech that “We mourn all the victims of the Nazis, including the six million Jews tortured in ghettos and death camps and killed cruelly during raids. Forty percent of them were citizens of the Soviet Union, so the Holocaust has always been a deep wound for us, a tragedy we will always remember.”

The author wrote on 1 January, 2019 that Russia and “Israel” are “two states, one nation” because of their shared historical experiences and the large-scale migration of Russian Jews to the self-professed “Jewish State”, a point that President Putin hammered home after telling the world that his countrymen “will always remember” the Holocaust. In a twist of fate, the date of Auschwitz’s liberation — 27 January, 1945 — was exactly one year after the end of the Nazi’s genocidal siege of Leningrad, which links the people of “Israel” and Russia even closer together on a higher spiritual level than few pairs of societies can ever understand, which is yet another reason why President Putin is so strongly against anti-Semitism and opposed to anyone ever threatening the “State of Israel” (ergo why Russia removed Iran from southwestern Syria in summer 2018).

Speaking of the siege of Leningrad, President Putin fittingly paid tribute to its survivors during his visit to “Israel”, and Foreign Minister Lavrov even broke down in tears while listening to his superior’s speech commemorating that solemn event under the monument that his hosts unveiled to its victims. There should thus be no doubt among anyone in the Alt-Media Community about the sincerity of President Putin’s feelings towards “Israel”, its people, and their shared history with Russia’s own (of which many of them are also a part). Very rarely do the Russian leader and his highest officials ever show their emotions in public, but President Putin’s latest trip to “Israel” was a notable exception because of the emotional symbolism involved, which deeply affected them on a personal level because Russia and “Israel” are indeed “two states, one nation”.

With such a spiritual basis for their bilateral relations (which also explains why “Israeli” “President” Rivlin said that “this battle [against anti-Semitism] cannot be fought without Russia taking an active part in it”), it’s little wonder then that they’re seeking to expand their economic ties even further than before after Sputnik reported that “Israel” might sign a free trade deal with the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union sometime next year. On the military front, “Foreign Minister” Katz saidthat “Russia plays an important role in the Middle East. Israel works on resolving regional issues in cooperation with Russia. Israel values President Putin’s understanding of the importance of ensuring security of the State of Israel.” As proven by Russia’s successful efforts to push Iran out of southwestern Syria, President Putin does indeed understand “Israel’s” security needs.

When considering the extremely emotional context of President Putin’s visit to “Israel” and the strong symbolism of his country standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the self-professed “Jewish State” in waging a global campaign against anti-Semitism as the spiritual allies that they are, it can be confidently asserted that this trip has become an unforgettable part of the Russian leader’s legacy, one that historians will be talking about for years to come the same as Russian schoolchildren will likely be learning about for generations. Everything that President Putin did was voluntary, not part of some “5D chess plot” to “destroy Israel” out of loyalty to his supposedly “secret alliance” with the “Resistance”, which the Alt-Media Community needs to finally accept. Russia will never support Iran against “Israel” in any shape or form, and saying otherwise is a lie.

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This article was originally published on OneWorld.

Andrew Korybko is an American Moscow-based political analyst specializing in the relationship between the US strategy in Afro-Eurasia, China’s One Belt One Road global vision of New Silk Road connectivity, and Hybrid Warfare. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from OneWorld